British Doctors Call For Shortening Of Pfizer Vaccine Injections Waiting Periods

Illustration of vaccine injection (Sam Moqadam / Unsplash)

JAKARTA - The British Doctors Association (BMA) sent a letter to British Chief Health Officer Chris Whitty, calling on the government to cut the time interval between injection of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine doses from 12 weeks to 6 weeks.

The UK is currently prioritizing giving the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, and asking patients to wait up to 12 weeks for the second dose to be injected, to give more people the opportunity to have early protection.

But Pfizer and BioNtech have warned that they have no evidence that the vaccine they are developing will still provide a protective benefit if the second dose is given more than 21 days after the first.

BMA said that it supports the injection of the second dose a maximum of 42 days after the first dose, while the longer waiting period is not in accordance with the direction of the World Health Organization (WHO).

Because of this, the BMA urged Whitty to "immediately review the current UK stance on a second dose after 12 weeks."

"The strategy of the United Kingdom has become increasingly different from that of other countries," wrote the BMA reported by Reuters via Antara, Saturday, January 23

"BMA members also note that, with an unpredictable supply, there may not be any guarantee of availability of a second dose of Pfizer vaccine within 12 weeks," the BMA added.

Earlier on Friday (22/1) Whitty told the media that the long gap in vaccines was a "public health decision (for)" aimed at vaccinating more people.

That, says Whitty, is also based on the belief that good majority protection is exercised during the lifetime of the first dose of injection.

The UK uses two vaccines, one from Pfizer-BioNTech and one from AstraZeneca.

Meanwhile, AstraZeneca supports this interval of injections, saying that their data shows 8-12 weeks is a good period to show vaccine efficacy.

The Ministry of Health and Social Services, in a statement via a survey, said that the priority of the institution is to protect as many people as possible in the fastest possible time.

"The decision [...] to change the vaccine dose interval was made after an in-depth review of the data and has been in line with the recommendations of four British Chief Health Officers," said a ministry spokesman.

Based on government data, so far 5.38 million people in the UK have received their first injection of the COVID-19 vaccine.